PORT ANGELES — The hand recount of ballots for Washington governor may be a cliffhanger, but the process as thrilling as slugs crossing a trail.
It’s almost as noisy, too — and about as fast.
Election workers and political partisans gathered Thursday to manually tally Clallam County’s votes for Democrat Christine Gregoire and Republican Dino Rossi.
If they’d sought excitement, they found none.
Anyone can drop by the county commissioners’ meeting room in the courthouse at 223 E. Fourth St., Port Angeles, as the counting continues today.
Just be ready to keep relatively quiet, stay in your seat — and fight to stay awake.
The atmosphere Thursday was reminiscent of a high school study hall where no one dared throw spitballs, of a library full of honor scholars, of a cafeteria where students took the Scholastic Aptitude Test.
If someone had popped a paper bag, a dozen people would have died of fright.
The day started at 8:30 a.m. for 12 recounters, eight observers and several more people who’d just come to watch.
Recounters and observers gathered at four tables where seats for the audience used to be: three recounters and one observer from each major party at each table.
Libertarians bow out
Libertarians declined to observe the process, said Clallam County Auditor Cathleen McKeown.
McKeown read rules that said no one could bring backpacks, purses or briefcases to the tables.
Observers couldn’t place their hands or rest their elbows there, either.
If someone had a question, he or she had to raise his or her hand.
The counting began as 30 sealed steel precinct boxes of ballots were wheeled into the room. One by one, each was opened and its contents placed into a basket. One basket was taken to each table.
There, they were sorted into five piles — one each for Gregoire, Rossi and Libertarian Ruth Bennett, plus a pile for overvotes (punched for two candidates) and undervotes (no governor’s vote cast).
